Scam a rough deal

JOCELYN REIN

AN AUCKLAND student is warning others of the dangers of online selling after a scam left her $2500 out of pocket.

Western Springs resident Shannon Rudolph lost the cash while trying to sell her car on the Trade and Exchange website last month.

Ms Rudolph, who has just started studying to be a social worker at Auckland University, says she was desperate to sell the car to pay for her return to university.

So when she received an offer from a woman in China, the deal seemed too good to refuse.

The woman asked Ms Rudolph to register with the online payment site Paypal, which she did, providing her full name and email address.

The buyer then requested Ms Rudolph deposit $2500 shipping fees before payment for the car would be released into her account.

Ms Rudolph says although she was reluctant at first, the scammers assured her she would receive her money straight away.

"It all looked legit to me."

She obtained a loan from finance company GE Finance and deposited the money, but when the buyer asked for a further "heavy loading" deposit, warning flags went up.

After talking to a colleague at work, Ms Rudolph realised she'd been scammed.

"I was really annoyed, really peeved off. It was the last thing I needed to have happen."

Although she has contacted the police, Trade and Exchange and the genuine Paypal website, she says there is nothing anyone can do now and the money is gone.

She sent the scammers "a few nice emails" but has unsurprisingly had no reply.

"Needless to say I've cancelled my account. I'll never do that ever again."

Now $2500 poorer and still stuck with loan repayments on her car, Ms Rudolph has had to change her university plans to study part-time.

An internet sceptic for years, Ms Rudolph says she had always been cautious about online security and has only recently signed up to internet banking.

She says if it can happen to her, it could happen to anyone.

Netsafe executive director Martin Crocker says scams are happening alarmingly often.

In a recent survey the Consumer Affairs Ministry found that 15 percent of New Zealand adults had been scammed on the internet in some way.

"One of the things we're learning is that people are not aware of all the different sorts of scams there are," says Mr Crocker.

He says most scams now are for smaller amounts of money and are "quite legitimate looking" and asking for pre-payments and shipping costs is a common one.

He says when selling online, users should always stay within the mechanisms of the e-commerce site such as TradeMe and requests to conduct the sale privately outside the site should ring alarm bells.

"Scammers always want to get away from the e-commerce sites. It's much harder to commit fraud within those sites."

He says victims of scams shouldn't feel stupid.

"It's not your fault, you've been targeted by criminals," Mr Crocker says.

Netsafe has set up www.scammachine.org.nz to educate internet users about how scams work.

- © Fairfax NZ News